Jun 15 2009
Why estimate and measure?
Estimation and measurement are two key activities in software development projects. Without them, it would be very difficult to make a project plan. Both Agile and lean use value-driven principle which means anything that are not working software would not add value to business. However if these activities are regarded waste and abandoned, obviously projects would go disaster. Why are they so important to software development projects?
Estimation and measurement are key information for project planning. A project plan is used for communication purpose. It puts project stakeholders on the same page so they know what might happen in the near future and what happened in the past. Estimation will give the “project plan users” an ideal time line whilst measurement gave them the real progress.
As both estimation and measurement are not working software so they would not add value to business how to spend as less time as possible in these two activities are apparently quite important. PLAN is also like a “product”, KISS(Keep It Simple & Stupid) principle will work here too. Over design of this “product” will lead to waste.
For estimation, it depends on how accurate that business requires. Because estimation is more or less a “guessing number” and influenced by estimators’ skills and experience. So it is not easy to have a team of 20 to agree on each other of the estimation. One of the rules is not to spend more time in order to make estimates more accurate and make it “Just Good Enough”.
For measurement, use common unit, such as hour, day, point, profit, $ and etc. and ensure that it is easy to be understood and used.
